Increasing Subscribers

How I Gained Over 1,000% New Subscribers Per Month June 5, 2011 Posted by Tyler Cruz click here Paid Advertisement Late last year, I started noticing that more and more bloggers in the make money online niche were using lightbox pop-ups to encourage their visitors to sign up to their mailing list. Since I was only averaging between 1-2 new signups a month to my own blog’s mailing list, I thought that I would try this method myself. I did a bit of research to see what the most popular and reputable software that people were using for this, and discovered that it was Popup Domination. The claims and testimonials on the sales page seemed too good to be true and rather extraordinary, but then again I had been seeing it used on a lot of big blogs (actually, almost all the big blogs), so I decided it would be worth trying. And so, on January 1st, 2011, I installed it on my blog to test it out. The Results The reason I waited so long to post this review was because I wanted to see the long-term effects of Popup Domination. I didn’t want to post a rave review about it after a month, only to see things dwindle shortly after. And so, I have a full 5 months of data to show you. I’ll get straight to the results. The best, and simplest way, is to show you the monthly new signup stats from my AWeber account on my blog’s list: 67 From the chart and stats, it’s obvious when I added Popup Domination to my blog. The red arrows are really unnecessary :-) As you can see, the moment I added it to my blog, my signups skyrocketed. I went from averaging 1.5 new signups a month to 17, which works out to an increase of 1,033%! I should also mention that this is without giving away anything for free. I basically just invite users to subscribe to my free newsletter to stay updated with my posts and other news and offers. Unlike almost every other blogger who uses this, I’m not offering a free e-Book or access to anything special. Just as impressive is the fact that these numbers have stayed consistent ever since adding Popup Domination to my blog. I didn’t see 1 or 2 good months and then a decline – it has been completely steady. Even though my actual numbers are very small and not very impressive, the fact still remains that I dramatically increased my new signup rate by installing this software. And from everyone that I’ve spoken to who uses this, they absolutely love it and have seen results similar to mine. Features I won’t bog you guys down with all the details of the features of the software like I normally do, but I still wanted to briefly describe some of them. First, it’s extremely fast and simple to both set up and customize, for both the WordPress and standalone versions (I installed the standalone version on my RobotWarz site). Below is what I customized mine to look like, which did not take long to do at all since there are a surprising number of nice premade templates to choose from: 66 Secondly, you have great control over how often the lightbox appears and on what pages it appears. For example, I have mine set up to only display once every 7 days for visitors, but I could change that to once a day, or once a month if I wanted to. I could even change it to display after the visitor has made X amount of views on my website. Here’s a quick rundown of its features: WordPress Plugin & Stand Alone Version 8 Beautiful themes with 15 Colour Options Works with ALL mailing list providers Works with all caching software Select specific pages for it to appear Exit Pop-up functionality Ability to pop up after a certain number of impressions The Price I can’t remember for sure, but I could almost swear that when I got mine, the price was $77. But I just checked the price, and it appears to be $47 right now. Even at $150 though, it’s still well worth the price if you want to dramatically increase your mailing list subscriber rate. The software just works, plain and simple. At least, it did for me. It also comes with a 60-day money back guarantee, so you really have nothing to lose, but a lot to gain. If you do get it, be sure to leave a comment here with your own review after letting it run for a little while.

Idea Triggers

Idea Triggers

When you are out of ideas, try one of the following idea triggers to stimulate your imagination.

What technique will the leader in your field be using 20 years from now?

Explain your problem to someone who doesn’t know any of the technical jargon. Ask how he/she would solve the problem.

What is impossible to do in your industry, but if it were, would change the nature of your industry forever?

How would you pursue the goals if you had unlimited resources: people and money?

Spend a couple of hours in the library leafing through journals that are distinctly peripheral to your project.

If there were a crisis and you had to complete your project within a week, what would you do?

Can you break down your major technical barrier into subsets? Which one now is the greatest barrier?

See how well you can describe the barriers to your challenges. Then get your team, first individually and then as a group, to prepare possible solutions.

Our brains need to be fed quality questions that challenge our neural network to really think. Try opening your next meeting with 5 – 10 minutes of question-storming. You can think of questions related to a specific topic, or simply reflect on all the things you would like to know about the universe.

Think of 10 ridiculous ways to solve the problem.

Are you managing your staff to take advantage of accidental events?

Wouldn’t it be useful if you provoked a bit more laughter in your group?

What question would you ask God if God were in the same room with you?

Go out of your way to find someone who isn’t an expert, but who would enjoy learning about your project. The burden will be on you to explain it in an easily understandable manner.

How about spending an entire week not thinking about the problem?

Try thinking about the problem during times when you normally aren’t thinking about work.

Any good analogies to help you see the problem in a different way?

Ever consider thinking about your project in a different language?

Is it really necessary to see that your experiments are “correctly performed?”

Get someone else to look over your notebooks; perhaps a clue you’ve missed lies waiting.

Perhaps the idea that, at the time seemed silly, now has some value.

Anything useful in project disclosures of a decade ago?

Go out of your way to discuss the problem with someone who isn’t personally involved with its outcome.

Might an extension of the project deadline significantly increase the chance for success?

Are the ideas limited because you, or someone in your group, is “wedded” to a particular piece of equipment?

How about getting one more opinion on that strategy?

Is there someone in your group who may have a good idea, but isn’t offering it because he or she is concerned that it won’t be accepted.

Set up a meeting specifically to challenge the assumptions you consider basic to the problem.

What can you do to present your ideas more effectively?

Do you really listen to old ideas?

Concentrate on the problem just before you go to bed.

After a major decision is made, let it sit for a few days before you act on it– allowing people to mull it over and provide new input.

Are you willing to take the battering that frequently comes when you offer a great idea?

Write the problem down with the fewest number of words.

Play with turning the problem inside out.

When the problem seems complex, take a walk, relax and observe. Then outline the problem out loud, just before you go to bed.

- See more at: http://creativethinking.net/articles/2013/08/19/455/?goback=%2Egde_2433065_member_267223559#%21

How to find a sellable subject for an ebook

How to Write an Ebook: Choose a Sellable Topic

Read the How to Write an Ebook: The Guide and How to Write an Ebook: Why It's a Good Idea here.
So you've decided to write an ebook and you've got a designated spot in your schedule to work on it.

What should your ebook be about?

Be strategic about the topic of your ebook. This is not necessarily a "write whatever and they will come" sort of endeavor. A little research is helpful, as is some serious thought.
When choosing a topic, think PFC:

P – Solve a Problem. I know I've said this about 15 million times on this blog, and I apologize for being a broken record, but seriously, be helpful! "How to" topics are excellent choices for ebooks. Find a hole and fill it. The hole you find doesn't have to be huge, it's just gotta be common to at least a decent-sized group of people.
F – Address a Fear. Most of us have fears and we do our very best to avoid them. Our fears range from "What are people going to think of me?" to "What if my spouse gets cancer?" to "What if we run out of money?" to "What if I die?" to "What if my children turn out to be tyrants?" and on and on. So, if you can come up with a topic that addresses a common fear and you offer a way to relieve that fear, you just might have a winner of a topic.
C – Satisfy a Curiosity. People wonder about stuff. This is why celebrity gossip is so popular and why reality shows are captivating. What's it like to live in a family of 19? How does so-and-so run his business successfully? Who's going to be wearing what at the Oscars? You get the picture. The bottom line is, we are intrigued by information that's not readily available. If you have an inside peek into something the masses might like to know (and are free to share that information), it might be a good ebook topic.

Now, if you can kill two birds with one stone (with PFC) and figure out how to effectively include two of the three in your ebook, all the better. I'm sure there are even some of you creative minds who will figure out how to solve a Problem, address a Fear and satisfy a Curiosity all in one shot. May you become ebook superstars!
In my case, I tried to tackle both the P and the F. In Tell Your Time, I address the fear of living a luckluster life with the how of managing your time in a simple, straightforward 4-step way.
Here are some additional things to think about when choosing an ebook topic:

1. Write about something you've got a passion for or at least know a fair amount about.

Once your ebook is launched, people are likely to ask questions about your topic. If you're writing it just to make a quick buck but you know nothing about the subject, things will fizzle when you can't answer their questions. Or, you'll be frustrated having to answer questions about something you could care less about.
If others ask your advice on a subject, that's often a clue that you have something great to offer (even if you don't feel like a ninja).
For me, I enjoy organizing and most of all, efficiency. So, an ebook on time management wasn't a stretch at all. I also had already gotten positive feedback on the information so it made me confident that others might find it helpful as well.

2. Choose a topic that has some meat and substance.

I read somewhere that an ebook should be at least 25 pages long. I'm not exactly sure who came up with that figure, but it seems reasonable to me.
What you don't want is a topic that could really be covered in about 10 pages and then you just use a bunch of filler to expand it to 25 pages so you can call it an ebook. If your topic can be sufficiently described in less than 25 pages, write a blog post, a blog series, a guest post or perhaps an ebooklet (in which case you should sell it for much cheaper).
I'm dancing on the line of this one with Tell Your Time coming in at about 28 pages. However, this was somewhat purposeful in that I was deliberately trying to keep it succinct to align with my Unique Selling Proposition (i.e. a book on time management that wasn't time consuming).

3. Write about something that fits with your established online identity.

So, for example, if people know you as the woman who is an expert knitter, your ebook will be easier to sell if it has something to do with knitting (or a topic somewhat closely related). If, however, everyone knows you as the expert knitter but you write an ebook about investing in the stock market, it's going to be a harder sell.
The exception to this would be if (a) you want to break into the "investing in the stock market" niche and you're going to use your ebook as a way to do that or (b) if, for some reason (maybe you mentioned it inadvertently in a blog post at one point), you have gotten a BOATLOAD of questions about investing in the stock market and since it doesn't really fit into your regular blog, you decide to write an ebook about it so you don't have to keep answering all the questions individually.
I sort of found myself in this situation. Obviously, my site is about blogging, but one day I threw up some tips about saving time using Gmail. Well, those tips turned out to be some of my most popular posts. While time management didn't quite fit in the "blogging for money" niche, it was somewhat related and was a feasible diversion in ebook form.

4. Have your target audience in mind before you begin.

This is related to the previous point, but the gist of it is, make sure you have a group of people in mind that you will market your ebook to. Who will want to read it? Would they be willing to pay you for it? The ability to put yourself in your potential reader's shoes will make writing much easier and your finished product better.
The size of your target audience matters too. I don't think you have to appeal to everyone on earth — by no means — however, if you'd like to write an ebook about ancient Mongolian tribal burial rituals, it'd be good to know if there are a whole lot of people who share your interest before you dive in. Do you have a market at all?
Also, does your target market spend much time online and therefore would be likely to (a) find your ebook and (b) know how to access it? Ebooks are still an enigma to many people so keep that in mind when choosing your topic. For example, ebooks targeting older populations are going to be trickier to sell than those targeting the 18-24 crowd simply because the older crowd (not all though!) are less internet savvy.
For me, time management is something everyone deals with, so I went big on this one.

5. Make sure the information is something they can't easily get for free elsewhere.

You may have heard people say "there's nothing new under the sun" which is largely true. In other words, most of the information we come across really isn't anything new, just packaged differently. So, in that sense, it's doubtful any of us will ever come up with a completely and totally novel idea.
Still, make sure your ebook is unique enough that someone isn't able to find it for free elsewhere without too much effort. And if your ebook content could be found elsewhere, have a solid Unique Selling Proposition. That is, make sure before you get started that you have a strong case why someone should shell out cash for your product and not just get the information for free someplace else.
In my case, time management books and blogs abound. One thing I've noticed about them though, is that so many of them are heavy on theory, overwhelming and (ironically) time consuming. In response, I made Tell Your Time short and to the point. I also came up with the tagline "What if you could change your life in less than 30 pages?" I wanted people to see that it was different right off the bat.

How to Write a High-Quality eBook in 30 Days

by  Ali Luke 

What if, 30 days from now, you had a finished, well-crafted eBook sitting on your hard drive, ready to distribute and sell?
That might sound next-to-impossible to you, but it’s not.
Every November, over 200,000 people worldwide take part in NaNoWriMo — “(inter)National Novel Writing Month”.
NaNoWriMo participants aim to write 50,000 words during the month, and tens of thousands of them manage to do it.
If those writers can do that, you can write a 20,000 word ebook in a month. Right?
And I am absolutely not talking about some scrappy, thrown-together document. You’ll have more than enough time to properly plan, organize, and edit your eBook as well.
Think I’m pulling your leg?
Here’s how to do it:

Pick your topic (Days 1–2)

Maybe you’ve got an idea in mind already: a book you’d really love to write.
Go ahead and write that idea down, and then store it in a safe place.
Leave it there for the next 30 days.
Yep, seriously. You’d probably have a great time writing it … but chances are, it’s not what your audience is looking for, so it’s not going to sell.
A great ebook idea needs to be:

• Specific. Don’t try to write the definitive guide to your topic: it’s overwhelming for your readers, and it doesn’t leave you much room for your next eBook.
• Useful. If you do consulting or coaching, what problems come up again and again? Do your blog readers always ask for posts dealing with a particular issue?

Ask your audience what they want, and give them a few possibilities to choose from.
You’ve only got two days here, so you won’t have time for a full-blown survey — but you can tweet out a question, or put up a thread on your Facebook page.
Be prepared to be surprised!
Once you’ve got a solid idea, you can …

Create an outline (Days 3–4)

Your outline is your roadmap.
It lays out the territory ahead, and lets you spot any tricky patches before you’re half-way through the first draft.
There’s no one “right” way to outline, but one or more of these might work well for you:
#1: Draw a mindmap. Put your topic or ebook title in the centre and start adding ideas to it as they occur to you. Use lines or arrows to create connections. At this stage, put everything down, however big or small — you can tidy the entire thing up later.
#2: Work backwards. Start at the end: what do you want your reader to be able to accomplish once they’ve finished your ebook? Then take a step back — what will they need to know before they can do that? And what about before that?
#3: Write a list. If you’re already extremely familiar with your topic, you’ve probably got an outline in your head. Start writing a list: what chapters or major sections will your ebook need? Once you’ve got the big pieces in place, write a list of 3–5 key points for each chapter/section.
#4: Examine other eBooks and books. Look through several chapter lists to see what topics appear in almost every book. Is there anything that you’re missing from your outline?
At this stage, it’s worth considering whether each chapter (or each section) could have a consistent structure.
This will make the writing process much easier and faster: you’ll have fewer decisions to make.
For instance, your chapters could follow a simple pattern like this:

• Quotation at the start
• An example mid-way through
• Practical exercise at the end

Once you have a clear outline and, if possible, a structure in place, it’s time to …

Start writing (Days 5–25)

This is where the bulk of your time will be spent: 20 of your 30 days.
If you’re aiming for a 20,000 word ebook (around 80-100 pages, assuming you’re including a few images) then that breaks down to writing 1,000 words a day.
Yep, that’s a sizeable commitment –- but, the trade-off is, you’re going to get your ebook done within a month, instead of having it drag on for a year or more.
Here’s a few tips to speed up your writing and get to 1000 words a day:

• Work on your ebook at the right time of day. If you’re focused and motivated in the mornings, write in the morning. If you’re at your best at 10pm, do your writing then.
• Turn off distractions when you’re writing. You might want to switch off your internet connection entirely, or use a program that blocks it for a certain period of time.
• Use a timer. Set a timer for 30 minutes, then write until the time is up. Having the minutes ticking away is a real help when you need to stay on-task.
• Don’t stop writing. If you need to check a quick fact, look up a link or add a screenshot, mark the place with yellow highlighter or something else highly visible — and come back to it later.
• Don’t edit while you write. Maybe you just can’t get the first paragraph right: it doesn’t matter. Leave it and move on. You can come back to it at the editing stage (and you may find that it works fine after all).

Aim to write every day for these 20 days — even if you only manage a couple of hundred words on some days.
The more you make writing a habit, the easier it becomes.
But you’re not done yet. You still need to …

Redraft your eBook (Days 26–28)

Ideally, you’d put your eBook aside for a while before revising it — but you’ve only got a few days left.
So, to see your eBook with fresh eyes, print it out — or transfer it onto your e-reader.
Read through the whole thing in one go, and make a note of:

• Any material that you’ve covered in more than one place
• Any missing information that you left out during the writing
• Chapters that would flow better in a different order

At this stage, don’t agonize over every word.
Obviously, fix any glaring typos or mistakes that you spot, but avoid getting too bogged down.
Spend these three days focusing on cuts, re-ordering and additions.
This might mean cutting out unnecessary tangents, juggling sections or paragraphs around, and adding in any hyperlinks and quotes that you didn’t have time to look up earlier.
At this point, your ebook might look finished.
But there are two days left, and you’ve still got time to …

Make final changes (Days 29–30)

These two final days can turn your eBook into a professionally finished piece.
Print out the ebook again, or view it as a PDF.
Read through slowly, checking every sentence and word.
Particularly, look out for:

• Clumsy or confusing sentences
• Misspellings (especially commonly confused words like “its” and “it’s”)
• Missing words — surprisingly common, and often hard to spot when you’re reading at a normal pace

And now …

Hurrah! You’re the proud author of a finished eBook!
Well, you will be that proud author
Which means it’s time to get out your calendar and write “EBOOK” onto every page of every day for the next month.
Yes, writing an ebook takes time, effort and energy. Yes, the next month looks incredibly busy already: but every month looks incredibly busy, right?
If you write a small, free eBook, you’ll have a great piece of promotional content.
Or, if you write an eBook to sell, you’ll be able to make money for months, even years, from just one month of work.
Right now is the best time to write.
One of the quickest and simplest ways to give yourself a motivational boost is to make a public commitment to your goal — so, write a comment below and tell us to look out for your finished ebook next month!